Fresno PD officer shoots and kills meth suspect after struggle

Fresno Police were called out to an apartment at Backer and Huntington Avenues on what sounded like a routine disturbance call.

The incident ended as a life or death battle between a police officer and an ex-con who police say was high on meth.

Police say the ex-con was a 34-year-old man who had just been paroled from a Michigan prison three months prior. His sister called police saying her brother was causing trouble. When the first officer arrived on the scene the sister directed him to the apartment.

Deputy Police Chief Pat Farmer said the man became violent after the police officer determined there were warrants out for the man's arrest.

Farmer says the officer used pepper spray on the man, but it didn't stop him. According to police reports he knocked the officer to the ground, and began choking him and trying to take his gun. At that point, the man's sister jumped on her brother, and began biting and hitting him.

Police said this enabled the officer to draw his weapon.

Farmer says the suspect was shot once when the man came at the officer a second time. The suspect died after being taken to the hospital. The officer was hospitalized with cuts and bruises.

Deputy Chief Keith Foster said that without the intervention of the sister "Fresno would have lost an officer today."

The sister said she regretted having called police on her brother, but believed the officer had no choice but to shoot her brother.